Meet the Author

As an award winning blogger, David Butler helps others explore the world of craft beer in Northern Colorado. Fermentedly Challenged helps you find great places to enjoy a beer, listen to music, enjoy a meal and find a discount on your next pint. Follow along on social media - @ChipperDave on Twitter and on Facebook.

Thursday, January 9, 2014

Colorado hopes to thaw out a bit today after the recent brush with the Polar Vortex. A huge coronal mass ejection from the sun the other day is due to hit the Earth later today and with it the possibility of seeing an aurora borealis tonight here in Colorado. And the Broncos are busy preparing for their divisional playoff game this week. The weekend is almost here and it's time to start stocking up on beer for the weekend. Here's what's happening around the Colorado beerosphere today Thursday, January 9th, 2014. If you aren't reading this article on FermentedlyChallenged.com, you don't know what you're missing.

Diebolt Brewing (Denver) - Join the Bottled Lightning Club. Don't miss out on the first release this month. How do you bottle lightning? Starting this month, Diebolt Brewing will roll out the first in their series of small batch bombers for the lucky 100 who sign up as members. For $125, members will receive 12 bombers over the year and a special gift. That's around $10 per bomber. Their first release is coming this month and is a bottle-conditioned C'est la Saison. They still have a few spots left; to join the bottle club sign up online or come by the brewery. And next month, their beer will be a Chocolate Vanilla Biere de Garde coming out around Valentine's Day. Members only!

Epic Brewing (Denver) - There's a special beer being tapped today at Epic. It's called Old Sage Brett, which was made from their Utah Sage Saison and aged in Chardonnay barrels that were once used for their Brainless on Peaches. And with a bit of Brettanomyces in the mix, it's gonna be funky! They only have two kegs of this beer in all so it may just last into the weekend. Swing by and give it a try.Arvada Brewing Co (Arvada) - For today's Brewers Limited Reserve tapping, Arvada Beer is going to serve snifters full of their Jolly Holiday available for $3 all day. It's your last chance to have this beer until next November. They expect it to run out by the end of the day today.

Breweries and Foodies (Denver) - Here's a beer and food festival that is set up as a benefit to provide Typhoon relief for the Philippines. Over 24 breweries and six different food trucks will be on hand at the Wings over the Rockies Air & Space Museum on January 31st from 6pm to 11pm for a night of beer, food and live music. Tickets are available through BrownPaperTickets. Every dollar goes to the relief fund. Breweries include: Left Hand, Avery, Great Divide, Golden City, Epic, Echo, Odd13, Strange, Odyssey, Big Choice, Wits End, Trinity, Westminster, Gravity, Industrial Revolution, Station 26, River North, Hogshead, Brewery Rickoli, Wiley Roots, Renegade, Crooked Stave, AC Golden and Kokopelli Beer. Co-sponsored by The Orange Crunch and Funk'n Wild.

Stem Ciders (Denver) - Tomorrow marks the Grand Opening of Stem Ciders in Denver. This cidery and tasting room is located at 2811 Walnut Street, Suite 150 and is not too far from Coors Field in the River North area. On opening day, they will have 3 of their own hard ciders on tap including stainless steel aged and bourbon barrel aged ciders. All hard ciders are naturally gluten free and will also be available in 750ml bottles to take home. On opening day, they will be open from 3pm to 11pm.

Black Shirt Brewing (Denver) - After working tirelessly for the past week Black Shirt Brewing has completed their first canning run and have their Colorado Red Ale, American Red Saison, American Red Porter, and American India Red Ale in 12 ounce cans! They hand-selected retail locations that will initially carry the beer and these are listed in the video below. BSB is currently making these deliveries so look for the beer to be on shelves as soon as today! They will also be available at "the studio." This was a major milestone for this little brewery and they couldn't be more happy, proud, and excited for people to try these beers out.

Breweries and Foodies (Festival - Denver) - Late last year, a devastating typhoon sweep through the Philippines. Recovery efforts are still underway and Colorado is throwing a beer and food festival on January 31st to help raise funds for relief efforts. It's the Breweries and Foodies fest and will be set at the Wings over the Rockies Air & Space Museum from 6pm to 11pm. Over 24 breweries and 6 food trucks will be on site pouring some great Colorado craft beers and serving up some tasty bites. 100% of the proceeds will go directly to relief efforts. More info on the January Beer Fest Calendar.

Mountain Toad Brewing (Golden) - Today's Tadpole Tap is the Oatmeal Stout. It's perfect for these chilly January days. This silky-smooth stout is creamy, slightly sweet, and GLUTEN REDUCED! (Don't be fooled; there's no reduction in flavor!) Come try one after 2pm. Quieros Arepas is serving up food awesomeness after 4pm!

River North Brewery (Denver) - The second beer in the B-Side project, a barrel-aged collaboration with Mr. B's Wine & Spirits, debuts Saturday, January 25th! Info on their blog. But for now, come down today for a new batch of Hello, Darkness Black IPA, kegged yesterday. The Pride of Philly Cheesesteaks will be on site tonight as well.

Boulder County

The Very Nice Brewing Company (Nederland) - Calling all poets, musicians, and performers! Join in at Very Nice Brewing tonight, Thursday, January 9th at 7:00 p.m. for Open Mic Night! Sign up starts at 6:30 p.m. Also, coming up - Pints & Poses at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday, January 11th. $15 = yoga class at Tadasana and a pint of beer in the tap room.

West Flanders Brewing (Boulder) - The brewery is now launching its new Single Keg Series. The series will feature single kegs of West Flanders beers that have been enhanced with special ingredients, aging methods and unique yeasts. Every Thursday at 5pm, West Flanders will put a Single Keg beer on tap at the brewpub. The debut beer now on tap is Rosa Marie IPA. It’s a special version of brewer Brian Lutz's Third Kingdom IPA that’s been dry hopped with Cascade hops and aged on fresh rosemary for ten days. The beer is 6.5% ABV and has 76 IBUs. Today at 5 they tap a second Single Keg beer, Sub-Conscious Stout. It's a special keg of West Flanders’ Lion Heart Stout that’s been spiked with a concentrated coffee infusion made from beans from Boulder’s Conscious Coffees. The beans were produced by a Chiapas, Mexico coffee cooperative. The beer is 7.7% ABV.

Northern Colorado

Odell Brewing and Funkwerks (Ft. Collins) - Both of these Fort Collins breweries were just named by Draft Magazine for having one of the top 14 highest-rated beers of 2013. Odell Brewing's Friek (fruit lambic) and Funkwerks' Tropic King (imperial saison) were amongst the list of beers garnering top honors. Both of these beers got top scores from a panel of Draft Magazine's BJCP judges as compared to BJCP style guidelines. Only beers that scored 95 out of 100 or better were included in their list. To check out the other winners, visit Draft Magazine. Odell and Funkwerks were the only two Colorado breweries that made the list.

Odell Brewing (Ft. Collins) - In other Odell news, this weekend in the taproom, January 11th and 12th they are celebrating the release of their new Winter/Spring Montage variety 12 pack. This season's variety pack has 3 12oz bottles each of 90 Shilling, Odell IPA, Runoff Red IPA, and Wolf Picker (an experimental hop pale ale). Live music in the tap room both days from 3:30pm to 5:30pm. This variety 12 pack will be available from January through April. Also, try these pilot beers in their taproom: Nasiatka Kopoba Imperial Milk Stout, Wood Tusk Oak Aged IPA, and Exp #2 Experimental Hop IPA.

Tap and Handle (Ft. Collins) - On Wednesday, January 22nd, Tap and Handle is hosting a beer tasting dinner! Join in at 7:30pm for an awesome night of Funkwerks and Trinity Brewing Beers! 5 courses, 10 beers! Tickets are available for $40 at Tap and Handle. Hurry, this one is going to sell out fast! See more Colorado beer dinners on the main listing page.

New Belgium Brewing (Ft. Collins) - Coming out this month is a new slightly sour wheat beer called Snapshot. This beer will be available in 12oz 6-packs and then later in February will also be put into cans and inserted into New Belgium's upcoming new variety 12-pack can pack. Snapshot is billed as having a subtle sour and is a "sour for the people".

Mountains and West

Breckenridge Brew Pub (Breckenridge) - In honor of their 24th anniversary, Breck's mountain location just tapped "Twenty Four" last night. It's a Belgian-style Double Oatmeal Stout that was aged over 10 months in Breck Bourbon barrels. It's big, boozy, belgiany with bourbon and vanilla notes and weighs in at 8.0% ABV. It gets even better as it warms. They made 150 gallons - come get some.

Beer Poster of the Week (Vale Ale House)

Palisade Brewing Co (Palisade) - Think you're good at poker? Prove it! Come play Texas Hold'Em tonight starting at 6:30pm and get your chance to win some cool prizes. Free to play. If you end up winning, you might be there until about 10pm.
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Colorado Beer News is published on Fermentedly Challenged daily (Monday through Friday) with craft beer stories as they break from newsletters, emails and social media sites. This news is intended for audiences of legal drinking age (21+). If you'd like to subscribe to this daily by email, sign-up here. Please, always drink responsibly and use a designated driver.